Rock Shops and Word Choices
Friday August 31, 2012
I'm winding up the month with a couple of new posts about unusual topics. First is an appreciation of those ubiquitous roadside attractions "Rock Shops: What Are They Good For?" ... Read More
The Sight of Stilpnomelane
Thursday August 30, 2012
Blueschist-facies rocks, like those at the Laytonville quarry I visited last weekend, have minerals rarely seen elsewhere lurking among the common ones. A band of pinkish gneiss contained these arresting ... Read More
Dealing with End-of-the-Worlders
Monday August 27, 2012
Most of us can ignore the claptrap about the world ending this December. Elementary teachers can't. Every class has at least one terrified child in it whose parents are irrational ... Read More
This Week's Geo-Quiz: Seismology
Sunday August 26, 2012
You know your rocks, your minerals, your fossils. But maybe a million-imaginary-dollar quiz centered around seismology makes you shake a little in your shoes. Do your hands acquire a tremor? ... Read More
Blueschist Here I Come
Friday August 24, 2012
I'm getting ready for a weekend jaunt to upstate California, where among other things I hope to spend a few hours crawling over a quarry full of rocks like ... Read More
What Was It About Quicksand?
Tuesday August 21, 2012
It seems like lots of old movies, whether they were adventure flicks or war films or Westerns, featured an episode with quicksand. The actors would walk into ordinary-looking ground and ... Read More
This Week's Geo-Quiz: Glaciers
Sunday August 19, 2012
Does it give you chills when you face a test? Do you freeze up when the stakes are high? I hope not, because the Glaciers Geo-Whiz Quiz is just the ... Read More
Mudrocks
Saturday August 18, 2012
What could sound duller, more ordinary, than rocks made from mud? It seems like a scientist looking for a big problem would pick something sexier. But mud is the default ... Read More
About Deep Earthquakes
Thursday August 16, 2012
Deep earthquakes were discovered in the 1920s, but they remain a subject of contention today. The reason is simple: they aren't supposed to happen. Yet they account for more than ... Read More
Anthropocene Inklings in 1862
Tuesday August 14, 2012
One of the great blog projects for the geologically minded reader is "Up and Down California," which serializes the government-sponsored Whitney Survey exactly 150 years later. The survey was a ... Read More
Town Outlaws In-Situ Mining
Thursday August 9, 2012
An Arizona town fighting off would-be copper miners and their government friends has unholstered a powerful tool: make it a criminal misdemeanor to use the proposed mining technology. A report ... Read More
Ohioans, Show Your Rock Love
Wednesday August 8, 2012
The state of Ohio has announced a special car license plate for Ohio geology, featuring the slogan "Ohio Rocks!" and the Ohio Geological Survey's website at OhioGeology.com. The best part ... Read More
Field of Dreams, Field of Dirt
Wednesday August 8, 2012
Today I'm taking the afternoon off to see a baseball game. Right now, the groundskeepers are at work readying the field of play. And that means their inner geologist is ... Read More
Geology 101: The Magnifier
Monday August 6, 2012
You might think that the first tool a new student of rocks needs is a hammer. Not so: it's a pocket magnifier, preferably a 10X, meaning one that magnifies everything ... Read More
The Deep Present
Saturday August 4, 2012
In the public's mind, geology is all about the deep past. But geologists wherever they go, even at home, live in what I call the deep present. It's an awareness ... Read More
Another Day, Another "Supervolcano" Scare
Friday August 3, 2012
Scientific drilling, like commercial drilling, is a mature technology that has brought us great benefits. Even drilling into volcanoes, a project that might make some of us nervous, is routinely ... Read More
New Geopark in Scotland
Wednesday August 1, 2012
Some of you may know about the geopark movement, which formally treats geological heritage as a cultural heritage. It doesn't have to be a big deal: for instance, imagine your ... Read More